Cheese Wedding Cake Reveal!

Most good weddings run late. Its a given really. But last summer I built cheese wedding cakes at many weddings that were running ahead of schedule. Usually because the period planned for drinks in the garden or photographs outside was curtailed due to inclement weather. I started increasing the contingency time I plan in for wedding cake creation!

So on an unseasonably warm day last November I turned up at a beautiful wedding which wasn't running early (and, despite the best efforts of the traffic on the M25, I was!). The room where the cheese was to be displayed in just over an hour's time was still full of very happy, chatty, dinning guests and they wouldn't be going anywhere for another three quarters of an hour at least. With the bride's approval I waited for speeches to start then crept around at the back of the room stealthily building the cheese tower while the guests were all distracted.  I'd just finished my work, gone to the corner of the room to get my camera, when the speeches stopped. As I turned back the cake was surrounded; nine people had appeared in seconds, from nowhere, all armed with cameras! It was really really lovely to see their reactions as usually I am long gone before the guests come in.

Web Site Re-do

So, aside from buying and selling fabulous food, what have I been up to recently?

Mainly beavering* away on the shop web site: www.tastesdeli.co.uk

It still looks, pretty much, the same. But there are now more than 500 items available in the online shop. I've replaced a lot of the product images. The postage rates have decreased, as Royal Mail have now increased the size limit for small parcels. A new Parcel Force postage option has been added, which is more cost effective for larger parcels. I re-enabled the review product feature having eventually managed to adjust it to show only the last initials rather than surnames of reviewers. The entire "back end stuff" which makes the shopping cart work has been updated (mainly to improve security) and because that took hours and made no difference to how the site looked, I have also changed the buttons and added a lightbox to display the larger product images. Just to prove I had done something! Then because I was feeling confident (perhaps overly so) I added a new feature: a little button that enables you to save things from your cart for later. So you can checkout with just what you want today, and the other items you were interested in will remain in your cart for next time. Seems to be working!

Fingers crossed it will encourage more people to buy fine foods online from us. If you've enjoyed any of our products please do register online and post your reviews. Other shoppers would love to hear your opinions.

*Assuming beavers spend many hours frowning at computer screens while occasionally inhaling deeply, crossing their figures and pressing buttons!

Cheese Wedding Cake in "You & Your Wedding" Magazine

One of our cheese wedding cakes appeared in the September edition of You and Your Wedding magazine! (Which explains a few of the phone calls I've received this week!).

I couldn't find the magazine in the shops, but called the publisher who very kindly sent me a PDF of the article the cheese tower appeared in. You can read the entire Readers Wedding article or click on the photograph to enlarge the page showing the cheeses.

Going Viral!

I've been using pinterest for a few months now; to collect recipe ideas. Imagine my surprise at logging in yesterday and seeing a photograph of a cheese wedding cake which I made last summer right there on the homepage!

It was a photograph taken by Chloe Browne, pinned by a lady in California, from a blog article by 100 layer cake. I'm not sure if the total number of re-pins is recorded anywhere, but by the end of the day it felt like the cheese wedding cake photograph was everywhere. It's lovely to see it capturing so many people's imagination and being added to their wedding mood boards. The feedback has been great!

"Famous" Cheese Wedding Cake

With all the excitement of Christmas I didn't mention that one of the cheese wedding cakes we created last summer appeared in Martha Stewart Weddings. The American web site is a planning portal for weddings, and includes a section about overseas and destination weddings. Rory and Lisa's Berkshire wedding is recorded beautifully; all the little details which went into the wonderful day (managed by wedding designer/planner Mary Herrington of Forever & Ever Events) and photographed by Chloe Browne of Caught the Light. It's all there, the invitations printed on baloons and vintage hankercheifs, pub-inspired table names, the dress, the shoes, the flowers, the table cloths, the place settings, and there, towards the end, is the cheese wedding cake I made!

The credits:
WEDDING DESIGNER & PLANNER: Mary Lee Herrington of Forever & Ever Events (http://www.foreverandeverevents.com)
PHOTOGRAPHER: Chloé Browne of Caught the Light Photography
CHEESE CAKE TOWER: Tastes Delicatessen
STATIONERY, SIGNAGE & PHOTO BOOTH PROPS: Hello Lucky
VENUE: The Olde Bell
FLORIST: Chantal Flores Design
GOWN: Britta Kjerkegaard of The Couture Gallery
SHOES: Christian Louboutin
FURNITURE HIRE: Theme Traders
HAY BALES: Holdshott Farm Shop
MUSIC: New Hot Cross Band, represented by Sternberg Clarke
CEREMONY SINGER: Sara Al-Qaiwani, bridesmaid
PHOTO BOOTH: Say Fromage
MAKEUP/HAIR: Kaz Fernando
LIGHTING/DJ: Gosh Management

Weddings

I've met some lovely couples this summer and have really enjoyed helping them choose the cheeses for their wedding, and constructing unique towers to satisfy their tastes. I've especially enjoyed receiving some beautiful photos of the cheese wedding cakes, and of the beaming brides and grooms. Some I am allowed to share, and have put into a facebook album. Blog readers should be able to view the album by visiting http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150264790314398.336261.297101229397&type=3&l=55fb4e419e

Summer is for Weddings

I love a good wedding, and I really enjoy making unique wedding "cakes" from beautiful artisan cheeses. I like the giant logic puzzle that the task involves, finding a cheese that is "just right", not to big, not too small, not to mild, not too strong, not too yellow, not too grey, not too soft, not too hard, but "just right". I like combining all those "just right" cheeses to create a balanced cheese board and I like meeting the couples that love cheese so much, they are making it a feature at their celebrations.

It feels as though the big wedding/civil partnership season is drawing to a close. We've had a good "season" with plenty of orders for a variety of differently themed weddings. Far more than in previous years. I can't deduce that the fashion for cheese wedding cakes is growing. We have done a lot more (i.e. some!) marketing this year, we're now selling cheese wedding cakes online and we've also built on our reputation, providing cheese towers for couples who attended weddings where we had provided the cheese in the past. Now I just need to get photographs of the cheese towers we made this summer online, in time for next summer's orders.

There must be another family gathering in the winter months? Cheese Christmas Cake anyone? New Year's Eve Cheese Tower?